High School Debate Analysis

Debating has been an activity that is not widely known in high school due to a lack of popularity. Maybe it’s because no one can understand what the debaters are saying in their given amount of time. Everything is said so quickly in such a small amount of time (two minutes) that it is hard to understand the point. Spread, or speed-reading, is a style that is commonly used in high school debates around the country. Watching debate that adheres to this practice will likely bore a mainstream audience quickly since not everyone can comprehend what they are saying. It is the complete opposite to style of debate where the speaker speaks in a more humane pace and does not just utter information in godly speed. In the documentary, Resolved, these …show more content…
Freire style of debate is when the speaker speaks to the audience in a calm voice and tone, and also understands. The audience will understand them better than someone using spread. Freire style of debate is an uncommon tactic used amongst high school students. It is also referred to as the “banking method”. Witham explains it as such, “ ‘banking’ concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extended only as far as receiving, filing, and storing deposits” (Witham Sage). In a debate, the debater will be the educator and the audience will be the students. Overall, this seems to be better to use in a debate for an audience who may not know the topic of discussion. Louis and Richard both used this style to win in their debates. However, they did less research compared to their opponents who use the common spread method for debate. Regardless they won the trophy. The time they needed to win to proceed to the next debate cost them the lost because in their last debate they used the spread method to argue about the spread method. If they were to continue using Freire style to debate, they could have one. In the documentary the opposing team won, but discussed with Louis and Richard they should have won. They openly admitted it, but the two still went home Louis and Richard accused the system to be racist and because they are black from a public school, and every other school they competed against were a private school or a more “privileged school”. After Richard and Louis lost their last debate, Richard had gotten into a fight in school that removed him from the debate team. When both of them graduated high school, they both got scholarships to go to college and participate in their debate